Saturday, August 02, 2014

A mysterious lake that appeared suddenly in the Tunisian desert has created an impromptu “beach” in the drought-ridden country.

No explanation has been given for the sudden appearance of “Gafsa Beach”, which was discovered by shepherds three weeks ago.

Authorities have warned that the water, which started off a crystalline blue and has since turned a murky green with algae, could be carcinogenic but Tunisians have not been able to resist cooling off in the 40C heat.

More than 600 people are believed to have flocked to the pool, locally dubbed “Lac de Gafsa”, where they have paddled, scuba dived, launched themselves off rocks and relaxed on lilos.

“Some say that it is a miracle, while others are calling it a curse,” journalist Lakhdar Souid told France 24.

There has been no official explanation for the lake's origins and while some geologists believe seismic activity may have caused groundwater to rise to the surface by disrupting the water table, others disagree.

According to local authorities, the volume of the pool could be one million cubic metres over more than one hectare, with a depth of between 10 and 18 metres.

No official ban on swimming has been put in place but Gafsa's Office of Public Safety warned Tunisians that the water may be contaminated or even radioactive.

“This lake is located in an area rich in phosphate deposits, which leave residue that is sometimes strongly radioactive,” Mr Souid wrote in Tunisia Daily.

“So there is a real risk the water is contaminated and carcinogenic.

“In the first few days, the water was a crystal clear, turquoise blue. Now it is green and full of algae.

“This means it is not being replenished and is conducive to disease.”

The Gafsa region of central Tunisia is home to the country’s mining industry and phosphate was first discovered in 1886.

Tunisia is the world’s fifth largest exporter of the chemical, used in agriculture and industry, and the Gafsa is home to one of the largest phosphate mines. - RYOT

**********

Thousands of Blue Sea Creatures Wash Up on Local California Beaches

Social media is teeming with pictures of small bright blue sea creatures washing up all over California beaches, with sightings reported in Humboldt County, Monterey and Ocean Beach.

Despite being described as "strange," "bizarre," "mysterious," and even "aliens," it turns out these creatures have a name.

Marine researchers are calling it Velella velella, a name the Santa Cruz Sentinel wrote sounds "like a nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film."

"Some people call them jellyfish, but they are in fact only distantly related and only superficially similar," said Rich Mooi of the California Academy of Sciences.

The small delicate-looking marine invertibrates are commonly called "by-the-wind sailor." They are 40 to 80 millimeters long as adults and are characterized by a clear, chitinous semicircular sail sticking above water.

Velella can be found floating at the sea surface. They feed on zooplankton and fish and their predators are snails. They generally float offshore but can be blown onshore in large numbers.

Nobody knows for sure why so many are washing up this late in summer.

Although they are related to the Portugese man-o'-war -- notorious for its stinging ability -- Mooi said the creatures are completely harmless to humans, though he doesn't recommend eating them. - NBC Bay Area

**********

Buy Your Own Slenderman Morphsuit...For Kids

A Morphsuit classic, transforming you into the supernatural being. Get ready to scare people.

I didn't believe Marco when he told me about the website. I mean, how could I? It was so far fetched and simply unrealistic to be a public website and not already shut down by the feds or something. And if he, of all people, knew about surely the cops had to or the FBI. He wasn't that much of technological genius and Hell, even had trouble operating Google at times. I was skeptical. It was probably some dumb prank that he found on a creepypasta or something like that.

He was always up for that stupid paranormal stuff and I mean always. He did everything that whole 666 youtube page, that number about that company that scheduled remodeling, he tried it all.

So when he calls me up and tells me, "Noah! You're not going to believe this shit! I'm watching this really hot girl at her computer-- I mean, dude, she's almost naked and I didn't have to pay or anything and she can't cut the feed, dude, this is awesome." You can imagine my disbelief.

"What?" I responded back to him, keep in mind this is happening at like three in the morning. I'm barely able to process what Marco's telling me and he's talking so fast. God, how I needed sleep.

"You heard me! I'm watching this really hot girl on her web cam."

"Please tell me why you decided to call me at three in the morning to tell me about this free porn site you're on again?" I was not in the mood for his shenanigans. Really. A call about a porn site could've waited until in the morning.... and honestly it could've been reduced to a text message.

"Because it's not a porn site, Noah." He responded. "Look, I was looking through my email, right? And I was scrolling on through and nothing seemed out of the ordinary a couple of junk mails yada yada then suddenly I found a really strange email that didn't have a sender--"

"And let me guess like the dumb ass you are, you opened it." I cut him off.

He paused a moment before beginning his story again, "Correct! Now, anyways, all that was in it was a link. And you know me, I'm dumb and wasn't really thinking it was a virus or anything. All the text said was 'Click this' so I did."

"And you got a virus and a porn site, congratulations. I'm tired, man, I want to get to bed, goodni--"

"Noah, this is serious! Let me finish then you can be snarky all you want. So I click it and the web address bar is all messed up. Like there's backwards letters and it looks like that zalgo text thing got a hold of it. It's a mostly blank page and... you know what, how about I just forward you the email and you can see yourself?"

I sighed. I was getting ready for bed but Marco seemed really persistent on showing me this thing. I was getting annoyed with him but if it would get him off the phone then so be it. I'd look at this porn virus or whatever the Hell it was that he wanted to show me so badly. I agreed.

He put his phone down on speaker and proceeded to forward me the email, I could hear his fingers heavy on the keys as he brought up his email and typed out mine. Honestly, this was ridiculous. I half expected it all to be some silly, stupid prank and he Rick Roll me or something like that. It took a few minutes for the email to reach my inbox and in the mean time, all I heard was Marco going on and on about how cool of a site it was.

"I got it. Do you want to stay on the line while I'm checking it out? Is that going to make you happy?" I asked, cursor hovering over the 'Click Me'.

"Yeah, I'll keep quiet. Just tell me what you think when you're done or whatever."

I took a deep breath before clicking on the link. I was going to kill him if this gave my computer a virus. What popped up surprised me. Marco was right, the web address bar was really fucked up. Some of the seemingly random letter and numbers were backwards and some of the... I don't honestly even know what to call them, little fuck ups? Were spewing onto the page. The web page was white save for a little black box in the middle of the page and small green text that read, 'Next' below it.

"What the Hell is this..." I asked Marco, perplexed by what I saw.

"Just click on the 'Next', hopefully you'll get some hot chick like I did."

I clicked on the green text to see a small loading screen in the black box before it cut to a video. In the video feed, I saw a girl. She looked to be about fourteen, maybe fifteen and was mindlessly staring at the screen, a palm resting against her cheek. She had a scowl on her face and ear buds in her ears. She didn't even seem to know I was there as her eyes were looking elsewhere on the page and not at me.

"You're fucking sick. There's an underage girl on my screen."

"Just click 'Next', it took me a while to find a hot chick. You'll get old people and kids sometimes. Just keep clicking."

I don't know why I was still doing this.

I clicked the green text to find another girl in the video space. This one appeared to be much older, maybe in her mid twenties and she had her feet resting on what looked like a computer desk. She had the windows open and it was light outside wherever she was. She was painting her toe nails and had the polish resting at her elbow. I watched for a few moments before the girl opened her mouth and began to softly sing. I didn't recognize the language but it wasn't English, possibly Spanish or maybe Italian? God, this was a bit creepy.

I quickly hit the next button and was yet again greeted by a loading screen before the page flashed and I was greeted in the video feed by an empty chair in what appeared to be a living room with yellow walls. It was quiet for a few minutes before I could hear a man's voice and said man came into veiw, munching on a pop tart as he took a seat in the chair.

Just like the girls before, he seemed to have no idea I was there.

"Hey..?" I tried speaking to him, now thinking that this was maybe like Omegle and random web cam chatting with a stranger. He didn't respond nor even acknowledge that he could hear me.

"They can't hear you." Marco cut in. I almost forgot I still had him on the line. "I don't even think they can see you... it appear to be like a one way mirror."

I tensed in my seat. I was watching these people through their web cams and they had no idea...

"Aw, shit!" Marco cut in once more. "Hot chick went to bed. Well, I'm beat. I'd leave her video feed running but you know, that's kind of creepy." He laughed.

"It's cool, right? It's like... people watching on the internet."

"Yeah... very cool..."

He hung up and I closed out of the browsing window before pulling the plug on my computer. - Reddit.com

'CHICAGO PHANTOM' - FLYING HUMANOID SIGHTINGS

NOTE: Any use of witness information, which includes any attempt to contact a witness or persons involved in an event, is strictly prohibited without the written consent of 'Phantoms and Monsters' and/or its associates.

NOTE: Any use of witness information, which includes any attempt to contact a witness or persons involved in an event, is strictly prohibited without the written consent of 'Phantoms and Monsters' and/or its associates.

PLEASE SUPPORT 'PHANTOMS & MONSTERS'

Donations for the 'Phantoms & Monsters' newsletter, blog and subsequent research are essential and always appreciated. You can use one of the donation buttons or go to Paypal.com and use my email lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com as the payee. Thanks again for reading and for your continued support. Lon

'Phantoms and Monsters' and 'phantomsandmonsters.com' is protected under the Lanham (Trademark) Act (Title 15, Chapter 22 of the United States Code)
'Phantoms and Monsters' was establish in September 2005 as part of PM Media

Disclaimer:
The publication of any and all content e.g., articles, reports, editorials, commentary, opinions, as well as graphics and or images on this web-site does not constitute sanction or acquiescence of said content unless specified; it is solely for informational purposes.

Fair Use Notice:
This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which may not be specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social justice, and religious issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

You understand that all Content posted on, transmitted through, or linked from the Phantoms and Monsters Site, are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. You are responsible for all Content that you post, email or otherwise make available via the Phantoms and Monsters Site. Phantoms and Monsters does not control, and is not responsible for Content made available through the Phantoms and Monsters Site. By using the Phantoms and Monsters Site, you acknowledge that you may be exposed to Content from other users that is offensive, indecent, inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise objectionable.

Please Note:
On this day, November 27, 2014, in accord with 15 U.S. Code Chapter 107 - Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, I declare that my rights are attached to all personal data, voice recordings, photos, art, text, titles, etc. published or reproduced at any media source. For commercial and/or recreational use of the foregoing my written consent is required at all times. By this release, I tell all unauthorized person and/or parties that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, broadcast, or to take any other action against me on the basis of its contents. The actions mentioned above apply equally to employees, students, agents and/or other staff under the direction of the offending parties. The contents of my profile include private information. The violation of my privacy is punished by the law (UCC 1 1-308 - 308 1 -103 and the Rome Statute)
NOTE: Any use of witness information, which includes any attempt to contact a witness or persons involved in an event, is strictly prohibited without the written consent of 'Phantoms and Monsters' and/or its associates.